Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych (L) pays his respects at the Monument for ‘liquidators’ who died during cleaning works after the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster at the monument wall in front of Chernobyl nuclear power plant, during a ceremony in Ukraine, 26 April 2012. On 26 April 1986 reactor number 4 blew apart at the Chernobyl power station. Facing nuclear disaster on an unprecedented scale Soviet authority tried to contain the situation by sending thousands of men into a radioactive area.